Little Things

Some things I've been making lately:

Maple Walnut Granola:

• 3 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (or nut of your choice)
• 1 cup dried cranberries (or dried fruit of your choosing)
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 Tbl warm water
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 250°F.

In a large bowl, mix together syrup, sugar, oil, water and salt until throughly combined. Add in oats and nuts and and mix until coated.  Pour oat mixture unto a  lightly oiled rimmed baking sheet or pan.

Bake from 1½ to 2 hours or until oats are dry and brown. Remove from oven and cool. Stir in fruit and place in a sealed container.

Don't Think I'm Gonna Make It

I've been participating in an Sock UFO (Un-Finished Object) Knit-A-Long in the Maine Knitters group on Ravelry. It was the KAL for the Month of March. I don't think I'm gonna make it by the end of the night....

Lent Weeks 5 & 6, or I am a Human Chain Letter

I didn't realize it until a co-worker mentioned it today, but this is my lest week of Lent. It really flew by me this year. Maybe because I was working in two-week increments due to paychecks, but yeah, I can't believe I have only 3 more days (good thing too as my Pro Flickr account is due to expire come Sunday!)

Without further ado, Week 5:

A shiny new haircut courtesy of Nina at Bei Capelli, which I am quite fond of, which is a big deal if you're me - at least according to Mr. Cleaver.

Some travel essentials from Hannaford's (our local grocery chain). Where did I travel, you may ask? I spent a lovely weekend in New York City visiting friends, which brings us to...

Lent Week 6:

I'm going to preface this by saying my solo weekend in NYC, despite some plane delays and a vigorous rainstorm was incredibly awesome thanks to the lovely friends I stayed with and who guided me around the city. I had a blast - I had so much fun that I didn't take many photos - I think I took something around 42 before I deleted any out of focus ones, etc. The hardest thing I find about photography, aside from feeling a little awkward about whipping out my large SLR is that I feel like I can either be in the moment or I can document the moment - and this weekend I was far more about being in the moment.

Airport water and some  snacks from home. 

After a long airport delay I finally reached JFK and took a cab to Monica's (a friend from the Chicago days), where I was met with freshly baked cupcakes!

Monica with some tasty cupcakes in the apron I made her.

The next morning we went out for breakfast, which for me meant French toast and Fresh Apples juice at Gracie's (?- the diner at the corner of  86th and 1st). 

Monica had to go to a performance for school around 1pm, but before depositing me on a train to my next meet-up she took me to a 107 year old bakery neat her apartment.

I bought a 1/2 lb of black & white cookies for Mr. Cleaver (which I'd never had before and thankfully my husband is the sharing kind) from Glaser's Bake Shop, whose payment policy was right up my alley (see below)

After I left Monica, I met up with Susie, a friend from high school I hadn't seen since we graduated back in 2001. 

She toured me around the East and West villages with stops at Purl Soho and Purl Pactchwork, the latter of which I bought some awesome rooster fabric; downtown yarns where I got the wine-colored malabrigo lace-weight; Lupe's Kitchen for some mexican food (another cash-ony establishment); and Strand, where I eyeballed several books, but decided after a day of carrying all my possessions around New York that I didn't want to add any further weight.

We also stopped at lovely little tea shop for lavender and camomille tea, but unfortunately I have no clue whatsoever what the name of it is, though it does have some awesome wallpaper in the back.

Continuing as a human chain letter, Susie deposited me on the F train around 6:30 and sent me off to Brooklyn, where I met up with college buddies Jenna and Rebekah for a very tasty three-course dinner at the Vinegar Hill House, to celebrate my visit and Rebekah's news about her job at a summer camp in Maine. Our meal lasted for about 2:30 hours, when once again I was placed on a train and delivered to Washington Heights and Brenna, a roomie from my first go-around in Portland.

The next morning we headed out for brunch at Good Enough to Eat, where you knew if must be good because we had to wait in line to get a seat. And good it was, my apple pancakes, though not quite my Katie Cakes, were delicious.

Because my friends know me well, Brenna and I headed to another yarn store, Knitty City, which lives up to it's claim of being the friendliest yarn shop in NYC.  I picked up some of my beloved Lorna's Laces Shephard Sock in the new Andersonville (my beloved neighborhood) colorway. 

Street Art in Brooklyn.

We then rode over to Williamsburg for some vintage shopping and hipster watching at  Beacon's Closet. Though the  stock is overwhelming I didn't find anything to my fancy. Around this time we both realized we had to go to the bathroom and started the great Brooklyn bathroom hunt.

We stopped in Penny Licks bakery for a cookie and found their bathroom out of order. We kept peeking into shops hoping against hope and meeting no luck until a friendly store employee sent us to a nearby bagel shop. 

When we made it back to Washington Heights it was around 6 and we were both pooped so we picked up some snacks at a convenience store, ordered a pizza, watched chick flicks on HBO on demand and knitted socks.

The next morning we ate bananas and bagel and I took a cab to the airport, reaching a waiting Mr. Cleaver at 2:30pm. 

I didn't visit Time Square, Central Park, or the Empire State Building, but I had the best New York trip I could have imagined.

Driven to Distraction

For the most part, up until recently I was a one-project knitter. But this:

Drove me to distraction.

I love hand-knitted scarves, I do. They're warm and cuddly and made with love. But I hate hate knitting scarves. They are generally mind-numbingly boring and so long, but never as long as you think, so they take forever to knit. Now I've never done one of those lovely lacey numbers, and maybe several months from now, when I've forgotten knitting this scarf, I'll give it a go. 

So why did I knit this scarf? The yarn. The lovely lovely yarn that is named after my old neighborhood in Chicago - Edgewater. As you may or may not know, Lorna's Lace is based in Chicago and many of her colorways are named after and inspired by Chicago neighborhoods: Argyle, Ravenswood, Devon, Lakewood, etc. When I found out she added a Edgewater colorway I leaped with joy and began haunting my LYS on a weekly basis until they got it in stock.

I normally only pick up Lorna's in sock weight because I can never figure out what to do with multi-colored yarn on a large scale that doesn't seem too busy, but this time I went with the worsted weight. I decided I wanted to make Mr. Cleaver a scarf (knowing that he doesn't really wear them) to remember our two years in the Windy City. I picked up the yarn in early August and hoped to finish it before we moved - hah! 

I tried, I really did, but even knitting this thing while watching TV was boring. And I decided to do the whole thing in seed stitch, which gave it a great texture and made me a great big fool. And if you can't tell, it's actually two yarns- Edgewater & Black Purl, alternated every 16 rows: which is my I call this my Sextuple S Scarf: Seed-Stitch Self-Striping Striped Scarf.

So while I was trying to finish this scarf I started and finished a cardigan, a hat to match the unfinished scarf, an identical hat for a friend who liked the hat that matched the unfinished scarf, and a beret I designed. I'll post about the other projects after I get a chance to photograph them, but Mr. Cleaver was gracious enough to model his new gear for me.

The hat is Brooklyn Tweed's Turn a Square. It's super simple  and a quick knit. A great beginning hat pattern for those wanting to try knitting in the round. I really liked the way the multi-colored yarn worked with the grey and since I have a good chunk of the Black Purl yarn left, I think I'd like to do a similarly toned vest and give steeking a try.

Oh, and for a guy who doesn't really like hats or scarves, Mr. Cleaver gave both of these his stamp of approval.

Whew!

Putting it all Together

So since the last time I posted, a number of things have happened.

1. We moved into the new place and are slowly making an empty apartment into a home (a big shout-out to our Portland friends who are letting us mooch their unwanted furniture!)
2. Mr. Cleaver got some part-time work as adjunct faculty at the community college
3. I got a call for my first job interview, which happens on Monday afternoon and there's a good chance I'll get another interview this week (I know a guy).

It feels good to be in our own place. The neighborhood is great, our landlords are super nice and it's a solid apartment. I'll post some photos once it gets a little more settled. So far I've managed to get a few things on the walls and my sewing machine on my desk, but no clothes out a suitcase. We all have our own priorities.

I went to a new knitting circle on Tuesday, I'll have to give it a few more tries to see if it's a good personality fit or not. It was a really small gathering, so I'm not sure it was representative, but we'll see.

Other than that, knitting's been on the backburner to unpacking, but I did finally take some photos of WIPs to share.

The photo above is the Forecast cardigan. A surprisingly simple knit, with more purling than I'd like, but I really enjoy the pattern. I'm knitting it in Cascade 220 Heather and I am really enjoying this yarn. It's very spriongy!

This scarf I haven't worked on since Chicago, but I thought I'd photograph it too. It's my "Seed-Stitch Self-Striping Striped Scarf." It's not very interesting to knit and I dislike making scarves in general, but I loved the colors and wanted something simple to display them. The blue-green color is particularly special since it's the Edgewater colorway from Lorna's Lace, which is my old Chicago neighborhood. The Purple is called Black Purl. It's just a nubbly scarf, but I like it. I might pull tassles on at the ned, but we'll see, I still have a lot of length to knit.

We don't have internet in the apartment yet, so the posting may still be spotty for a while. But keep your fingers crossed for me tomorrow!

The Slippery Stash Slope

For the first 2½ years of my knitting life, I managed to avoid accumulating a stash, even prided myself on it.

I only had yarn for my current project and you'd be hard-pressed to get me to select a yarn without a specific project mind (though it did occasionally happen - leading, for instance to the Honeymoon Mini-Cardi, but in full disclosure I probably made my brand-new husband nuts in my indecision to purchase that yarn while on our honeymoon). I even was obsessive about using up the leftovers of the yarn I had.

And then it happened.

I went into my local yarn shop to pick up some sock yarn and "lo-and-behold!" all the yarn in the bins on the floor was only a dollar. Even I couldn't resist that bargain and so I grabbed these five balls of silk.

What am I going to make with it? Who knows! Though Ravelry has provided some intriguing options, namely this and this.

Not too long after I purchased the silk, I went back to the same store to buy some stitch markers for a sweater I'm knitting up and came out with these:

Granted, this is for a specific project, but one I likely won't start for some time.

And then that same old yarn shop, in honor of Mother's Day and Government Rebate checks decided to have a 25% off of everything sale. So I got this sock yarn that I was ogling when I bought the last sock yarn.

Now, I'm sure some hard-cord yarn collectors will scoff at my measly 9 skeins, but it's a slippery slope I say! A very slippery slope.

At least I'm using some of my yarn...

But I'm fairly certain I'm going to have a ball leftover.

I think I'll make it into a hippo.